Fig. 21 is, of course, an exaggeration, but it will serve to illustrate the bad effects of the concealment of any low portion of the road by any high portion

FIG. 21.

without a bend in the road. The spectator at A sees the carriage c in a proper position, but when c retires down the slope, and is partially lost at B, the effect will be rather grotesque, and will not be improved by the gradual emerging of c towards the crest of hill. There is a most painful instance of this defect in a work of great importance in another part of the world. In that case the road is about sixty feet wide.

Where there are means of laying out the road on curves, the inequalities of the ground can be got over with comparative ease, and a cutting may also be much bolder.

As to the width of roads, the writer is for having them narrow rather than wide. Everything depends on the size of the place; but as no entrance road need be wider than enough to let two carriages pass, fourteen feet is sufficient for the largest place; and as the width of the road preeminently gives scale, it should never be made, in a small place, more than nine, or at most ten feet, enough for one carriage to drive handsomely. It is thus kept in order by the traffic, and the weeds

kept down, which will not be the case where the road is double the width of the travel. If two carriages meet, it is easy enough to take the grass with one wheel for a few yards, and, even if the turf should be injured, it is cheaper to repair it now and then than to keep down the weeds in a fourteen-feet road permanently. The refuse lime from gas-works is excellent for killing weeds, but it must be used with care, as it will kill anything it comes near, and it spreads its influence laterally farther than is generally supposed.

If the place is old and well wooded, you may desire or be desired to take the road through a piece of wood composed of chesnuts or other impenetrable foliage. On this subject the writer can only say that he would not willingly do it, thinking that an entrance should be as cheerful as possible, which a long grove can never be; though, by passing through trees occasionally, great variety is given and the pleasure of the drive increased. Of course there is no objection to an avenue of any kind, because that supposes the trees to be at a good distance apart, and not too close to the road. Besides, an avenue consisting of two or more rows of trees is by no means a track cut through a forest. What the writer protests against is a road running into a wood composed of thick foliage, where a sufficient number of trees are not removed to allow the sky to be seen in almost all parts. A pair of trees here and there, with the road going between them, will be very good: even three or five trees can be thus managed

with advantage, but there should not, in the writer's opinion at least, be enough to make the road dark.

A growing custom is to make avenues by clumps of several trees, sometimes as many as seven or nine, disposed in groups at about seventy yards apart. Of course, in time, most of the trees must be thinned out that is to say, entirely removed, to allow those remaining to expand into their proper proportions.

The finest avenue we have in England is supposed to be the Long Walk at Windsor. Many of the trees are dying, but the whole effect is still very grand. The avenues of Hampton Court have been much neglected by allowing too many trees to remain; those of Kensington Gardens have suffered almost beyond remedy. When trees become large, and touch each

other, they exercise a most prejudicial effect by cutting the branches of their neighbours when swaying with the wind. This is reciprocal, and two trees are injured in every such case.

Avenues should not be designed to bear towards a dip in the land, unless there is an elevation beyond capable of bearing an object or forming a vista.

THE SITE OF THE HOUSE.

Having called the reader's attention to some of the defects which too commonly mar the approach road, and having given his views as to the proper mode of treatment, which, however, do not in all points coincide with those of some very able practitioners, the writer will endeavour to describe the sort of spot which he would select for the site of the house, being, of course, that which most nearly fulfils the requirements alluded to in the next pages.

In the first place it is essential that the site of a house should be chosen by a landscape gardener, and with his utmost care, no matter how long it may take.

Of all mistakes, the most serious is that of placing a house badly. Lakes may be drained or filled up; trees may be planted or cut down; roads made or diverted; but the house remains as it was first set out, to the life-long satisfaction or annoyance of its occupant.

The importance, therefore, of choosing the best site. is so great, and the service thereby rendered to the employer so considerable, that many landscape gardeners, in addition to their per diem rate of pay, charge a separate fee equal to a day's pay, and no money is better earned. It must be very desirable that an

employer, who is about to lay out many thousands on bricks and mortar, should know that they will be put in the most advantageous place. No rules can be given for choosing a site, because every place is different; it is usual, however, to have the garden front the choicest in design, and commanding the best views. The entrance should be at what may be called the back: at all hazards, keep the horses from walking into the drawing-room; and do not force on visitors the transparency of the conventional not at home,' by exposing the whole family at luncheon, or the lady taking an early dinner with the children.

It is of more importance than would at first sight appear, to have, if the place is very large and the drive within the grounds long, a sort of private back road by which the proprietor can reach the turnpike without meeting visitors.

If the ground slopes from back to front, say from

FIG. 23.

NNE. to SSW., it will be advisable to contrast the slope by raising the building at the garden or SSW. front. This will allow the entrance to be ENE. or NNE., and